JP2002133261A - Method and system for distributing advertisement information - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to individually distribute advertisement information to a subscriber in response to the subscriber's request without the increase of traffic. SOLUTION: The kinds of advertisement information, which the subscriber, a receiver, wants to have, are registered on the side of a sender as a distribution list, the distribution list and the advertisement information registered in the list are distributed to a local network on the receiver's side, the receiver refers to the distribution list, and then the advertisement information the subscriber wants to have is individually sent by electronic mail.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and a system for distributing advertisement information, and more particularly to a method and a system for distributing advertisement information for distributing advertisement information published in a newspaper insert flyer using an electronic mail. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in retail stores such as supermarkets and shopping streets, promotion of sales dates and sales of hot-selling products have been promoted to consumers by using inserts for newspapers. However, the client of such a flyer is
Since most of them are shops in or around the newspaper delivery area, it is difficult for newspaper subscribers to obtain flyers from shops outside the delivery area, and it is not possible to obtain information on the desired shop There was something. In addition, since the same type of flyer is uniformly folded in the delivered newspaper, the same type of flyer is delivered to each household in the same area. As a result, the contents required by the subscriber are not always delivered, and many flyers have been used to increase paper waste without being used at all.
Therefore, the present inventor has tried to solve such a problem.
This has led to the proposal of an "advertisement information distribution method and an advertisement information distribution system" disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-90780.

FIG. 11 is a system configuration diagram showing an outline of an advertisement information distribution system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-90780. In this system, only advertisement information desired by each subscriber is distributed by e-mail by registering the advertisement information desired by the subscriber in advance in the data distribution server 12a of the distribution source. is there.
As shown in the figure, the advertisement information is stored in the storage device 12b and managed by the data distribution server 12a, and is distributed to each subscriber by e-mail via the Internet 11. Specific examples of the advertisement information include, for example, special sale information of a store as shown in FIG. 12, and a picture of a product, a product name, a selling price thereof, and the like are written together.
F (Portable Document Format), JPEG (Joint Ph
otographic Experts Group) or GIF (Graphics I
nterchange Format).

[0004] Each subscriber is a CATV network 13a, 14
a, the e-mail distributed from the data distribution server 12a is once received by the mail servers 13b, 14b, and then individually sent to the subscriber terminals 13c to 13e, 14c to 14e. Will be delivered to Therefore, if these terminals are not connected to a cable television network (hereinafter, referred to as a CATV network) 13a, 14a, the distributed e-mails are stored in the mail servers 13b, 14b, so that the destination is unknown and the distribution source is determined. It will not be sent back. The e-mail stored in the mail servers 13b and 14b is a CATV
When the terminal is connected to the networks 13a and 14a, it is delivered to the destination terminal.

[0005]

As described above, the above-mentioned conventional system has an advantage that the contents desired by each subscriber can be individually distributed by distributing the advertisement information by using the e-mail, and the paper resources can be saved. This has the advantage of eliminating waste. However, if a plurality of subscribers desire the same advertising information, individual delivery for each subscriber results in a huge number of e-mails being distributed on the Internet. For example, the number of subscribers in a single CATV network is usually in the order of thousands to tens of thousands, so if such a large number of mails are delivered at one time, traffic on the Internet will increase, and the delivery of e-mails may be delayed. ,
There is a possibility that the communication band of other Internet users may be narrowed. The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and an object thereof is to provide an advertisement information distribution method and system capable of individually distributing advertisement information according to each subscriber's request without increasing traffic. Aim.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, an advertisement information distribution method according to the present invention manages a plurality of types of advertisement information at a distribution source and distributes the advertisement information to a local network at a distribution destination. In the method of individually distributing to a plurality of subscribers connected to the server, the type of advertisement information desired by the subscriber of the distribution destination is registered in the distribution source as a distribution list, and the distribution list and the distribution list Is distributed to the local network of the distribution destination, and the distribution destination refers to the distribution list and individually distributes advertisement information desired by each subscriber by e-mail. Further, the distribution source may have information on an expiration date of the advertisement information, and delete the expired advertisement information. Further, the distribution source may change the contents of the distribution list in response to a request from the subscriber. Further, the local network may be a cable television network.

Further, the advertisement information distribution system according to the present invention manages a plurality of types of advertisement information at a distribution source, and individually distributes the advertisement information to a plurality of subscribers connected to a distribution destination local network. In the delivery system,
A distribution list including a type of advertisement information desired by the subscriber of the distribution destination is registered, and a data distribution unit that distributes the distribution list and the advertisement information registered in the distribution list to the local network of the distribution destination, A data distribution unit that individually refers to the distribution list and distributes advertisement information desired by each subscriber by e-mail. Further, the data distribution means may have information on an expiration date of the advertisement information, and may delete the expired advertisement information. Further, the data distribution means may change the contents of the distribution list in response to a request from the subscriber. Further, the local network may be a cable television network.

[0008] With this configuration, the present invention provides:
Since multiple types of advertising information are distributed to the distribution destination network without redundancy and distributed to each subscriber at the distribution destination, advertisement information according to each subscriber's wish can be transmitted without increasing traffic on the Internet Can be delivered.

[0009]

Next, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the advertisement information is stored in the data distribution server 2a and the storage device 2b.
Is managed by a distribution source having an FTP (File Trajectory) via the Internet 1 for each distribution destination.
nsfer Protocol). That is,
The data distribution server 2a creates a distribution wish list (hereinafter referred to as a distribution list) for each subscriber in response to a request from the subscriber, and distributes mail data composed of image data to each distribution destination based on the distribution list. . Note that an RAS connection may be used instead of the Internet 1 described above.

For example, as shown in FIG. 1, a subscriber of terminal 3c desires distribution of advertisement information A, B, and C, and a subscriber of terminal 3d desires distribution of advertisement information A, C, D, and E. Terminal 3e
Subscribers want to distribute advertising information A, D, E,
In the storage device 2b of the distribution source, “for A: A + B + C”, “for A: A + C + D + E”, and “for C”: A + D + E are registered as distribution lists. In addition, advertisement information A, B, C, D, and E are prepared one by one without redundancy as mail data for the distribution destination α. A specific example of the advertisement information is as shown in FIG. 12 similarly to the conventional example, and includes a photograph of the product, a product name, a selling price thereof, and the like, and is described in a format such as PDF, JPEG, or GIF. Consists of image data. As other formats, a combination of image data and text (character) data, only text data, or a combination of these with audio data may be used.

Each subscriber can connect to the Internet 1 using the CATV networks 3a and 4a, and the e-mail distributed from the data distribution server 2a is once received by the distributors 3f and 4f and then distributed to the distributor 3f. And 4f distributes and distributes each mail data to each subscriber based on the distribution list attached to the mail data. Each of the mail servers 3b, 4b has a subscriber mailbox registered in advance, and the mail received from the distributor is once received in this mailbox, and thereafter, the subscriber terminals 3c to 3e, 4c.
c to 4e. Therefore, these terminals are C
Even if the electronic mail is not connected to the ATV networks 3a, 4a, the delivered electronic mail is stored in the mail servers 3b, 4b and delivered when the terminal is connected.

FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram showing distribution sources. As shown in the figure, the storage device 2b shown in FIG.
Subscriber information database 2b-1 and advertisement data DB 2b
-2, advertiser information DB2b-3, and entity data pool unit 2
b-4. DB means a database.

The subscriber information DB 2b-1 contains personal information,
The extraction conditions, exclusion conditions, and distribution information are stored in a database for each subscriber. The personal information is information such as a subscriber code, a distribution destination area code, a subscriber's residence area, a subscriber's work area, a subscriber's occupation, and a subscriber's e-mail address. The extraction condition is information on the area where the advertiser is located, the type of business of the advertiser, the retailer who is the advertiser, and the like, and these are information on the advertisement that the subscriber wants to distribute. On the other hand, the exclusion condition is information on the region where the advertiser is located, the type of business of the advertiser, the store that is the advertiser, and the like. The distribution information is information such as the history of the distributed advertisement.

The advertisement data DB 2b-2 stores advertisement data information and distribution target conditions. Ad data information includes the unique data serial code assigned to the ad data, the delivery start date and time specified by the advertiser,
Information such as the distribution end date and time specified by the advertiser indicates the expiration date for the distribution of the advertisement data. The distribution target conditions are information such as the subscriber's residence area, the subscriber's residence and work area, and the subscriber's occupation. Advertiser information D
B2b-3 stores information about the store serving as the advertiser, that is, stores the area (address) of the store that executes the advertisement content, the items handled, the contact information, and the like. Further, the entity data pool unit 2b-4 stores entity data of the advertisement data, that is, the image as shown in FIG. 12 is described and stored in a format such as PDF, JPEG, or GIF. Each data in the entity data pool unit 2b-4 is stored in the advertisement data DB 2b-2.
Is associated with the corresponding data in

On the other hand, the data distribution server 2a shown in FIG.
Is a distribution destination extraction unit 2a-1 and a mail data generation unit 2a-
2, an FTP server 2a-3, a mail server 2a-4, a web server 2a-5, and an extraction condition decoder 2a-6.

The distribution destination extracting section 2a-1 is composed of a distribution target matching section 2a-11 and a subscription target matching section 2a-12. The distribution target adaptation unit 2a-11 includes a subscriber information DB 2
By matching the personal information b-1 with the advertisement data information and the distribution target condition in the advertisement data DB 2b-2, a subscriber who has a condition that the advertiser desires to distribute is extracted. The subscribing target adaptation unit 2a-12 transmits, for the subscriber extracted by the distribution target adaptation unit 2a-11, the extraction condition and the exclusion condition of the subscriber information DB 2b-1 and the store information of the advertiser information DB 2b-3. Perform matching.

The mail data generation unit 2a-2 extracts advertisement data from the entity data pool unit 2b-4 according to the distribution list generated by the distribution destination extraction unit 2a-12, and adds expiration date information to the extracted advertisement data. To generate mail data and send it to the FTP server 2a-3.
At that time, the distribution list is sent together with the mail data. FT
The P server 2a-3 distributes the mail data and the distribution list created by the mail data generation unit 2a-2 to the distributor by FTP communication. In the present embodiment, the mail data and the distribution list are described as being distributed by TCP / IP FTP communication, but the distribution in the present invention is not limited to FTP.
Other protocols, such as OSI FTAM (File
It goes without saying that the distribution may be performed in accordance with Transfer Access and Management) or the F procedure of JIPDEC.

On the other hand, the mail server 2a-4 accepts a change in the extraction condition sent by e-mail from the subscriber. The web server 2a-5 accesses the homepage of the distribution source and receives a change in the extraction condition input via the homepage. Extraction condition decoder 2a-6
Registers the received extraction condition as an exclusion condition of the subscriber information DB.

Here, a method of registering personal information and the like will be described with reference to FIGS. These pieces of information are registered at the time of initial setting, and can be arbitrarily changed even after the start of the subscription according to the request of the subscriber. FIG.
Is a plane showing a registration screen for customer information. As shown in the figure, the subscriber can display a screen for registering personal information on the terminal of the subscriber by accessing a homepage provided by the data distribution server 2a. For example, on the screen, "e-mail",
Input fields such as "Name", "Name", "Postal code", "Address", "Work location" and "Occupation" are displayed. It can be registered in the distribution server 2a.

FIG. 4 is a plane showing a registration screen of subscription information. As described above, upon access to the homepage, input fields such as “selection of region”, “delivery target”, “business item”, and “designation of the start date of application of change conditions” are displayed on the subscriber terminal. By writing or selecting the condition, the distribution target or the like desired by the subscriber can be registered in the data distribution server 2a. That is,
By specifying the distribution target area, it is possible to receive advertisements in an area different from the area where the user lives. Also, by designating a business item, only advertisements relating to a desired item can be received. In addition, the delivery start date of the specified ad is set to "Monday,""Nextday,""Nextweek,"
It can be specified as either “Next month” or “Next year”.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to (1)
Distributor processing, (2) Distributor processing,
(3) Processes on the terminal side will be described separately. First, (1)
The processing of the distribution source will be described. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing processing of the distribution source, and this processing is executed by the data distribution server 2a shown in FIG. First, an expired file is searched for the advertisement data stored in the entity data pool unit 2b-4 in the storage device 2b, and if an expired file is found, it is deleted (step 101). Next, a distribution list is generated for each subscriber with reference to the subscriber information DB 2b-1 and the advertisement data DB 2b-2 (step 102). Next, mail data is generated for each distribution destination with reference to the subscriber information DB 2b-1 and the advertiser DB 2b-3 (step 10).
3). Finally, the distribution list and the mail data generated in the previous step are distributed to the distributors of the respective destinations (step 104).

Here, steps 101, 102 and 1
03 will be described in detail. FIG.
9 is a flowchart showing an automatic deletion process (* 1) of the first embodiment.
First, it is determined whether or not the processing has been completed for all the data in the advertisement data DB 2b-2 (Step 201), and if not, one advertisement data is selected from the advertisement data DB 2b-2 (Step 202). . Then, the distribution end date and time of the advertisement data is compared with the current date and time. If the current date and time is after the distribution end date and time (step 203), the read advertisement data is deleted because it has expired (step 203). Step 205). If not, the process proceeds to the next data in the advertisement data DB (step 2).
04), returning to step 101;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the distribution list generation processing (* 2) in step 102. First, it is determined whether the processing has been completed for all subscribers in the subscriber information DB 2b-1 (step 301). If not, it is determined whether or not the personal information in the subscriber information DB 2b-1 matches the distribution target condition in the advertisement data DB 2b-2 (Step 302). If the information matches, the extraction condition and the exclusion condition in the subscriber information DB 2b-1 correspond to the information in the advertiser information DB 2b-3 and the advertisement data DB 2b-2.
(Step 30)
3). If they match, the advertisement data serial code and the subscriber code are written in the distribution list (step 304). Next, the process proceeds to the next subscriber data in the advertisement data DB 2b-2 (step 305), and returns to step 301.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the mail data generation process (* 3) in step 103. First, it is determined whether the processing has been completed for all data in the distribution list (step 401). Next, a distribution destination area code (a code for identifying a distribution destination) is read from the distribution list (step 402), and advertisement data is extracted using the read distribution destination area code as a key (step 403). Next, after merging the extracted advertisement data into one file, mail data is generated by attaching a distribution destination area code (step 404),
Shift to the next distribution destination area code (step 405),
It returns to step 401.

Next, (2) processing of the distributor will be described. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operation of the distributor. First, upon receiving a distribution list and mail data from a distribution source (step 501), the distributor individually distributes mail data to each subscriber based on the distribution list (step 50).
2). E-mail delivered to each terminal is HTML (Hype
rText Markup Language) or XML (eXtensible Ma)
rkup Language) or the like. The mail data distributed by the distributor is received by the mail server, and is distributed to each subscriber terminal by the mail server.

Next, (3) processing on the terminal side will be described. FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing processing on the terminal side. First, an automatic deletion process is performed to delete an expired e-mail file (step 601). Then C
It connects to the ATV network (step 602) and connects to the mail server of the subscription provider (step 603). Next, after confirming whether or not there is a mail (step 60)
4) If there is, one message is received and the message is searched (steps 605 and 606). It is determined whether or not the search result is a mail from the data distribution server 2a (step 607),
If it is from the data distribution server 2a, it is determined whether or not a web browser is running on the terminal (step 6).
08) If not started, the web browser is started (step 609). Next, the advertisement data is extracted from the received mail (step 610), and the contents are transferred to the web browser (step 611) and displayed (step 612). On the other hand, when the mail is not a mail from the data distribution server 2a, the mail is a normal mail. Therefore, it is determined whether or not the mailer is activated (step 613). If not, the mailer is activated (step 61).
4), forward the mail to this mailer (step 61)
5). Thereafter, the flow returns to step 604 to check for the presence or absence of the mail. If there is no mail, the series of procedures ends.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the automatic deletion process (* 4). First, it is determined whether or not logs of all e-mails received by the mail server have been checked (step 701). Next, the electronic mail is read out from the log in file units (step 702),
After determining whether there is an automatic deletion target flag (step 703), it is determined whether the file expiration date has passed (step 704). If there is a flag, the file is deleted (step 705). If the deleted file is unread, it is added to the unread deletion list (steps 706 and 709), and the process proceeds to the next file (step 707). Thereafter, returning to step 701, the above procedure is repeated, and when the check of all logs is completed, the unread deletion list is transmitted to the data distribution server 2a of the distribution source (step 708).

In the above, an example in which a CATV network is used as a distribution destination network has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, ISDN (Integr
atedServices Digital Network) and ADSL (Asymmet
ric Digital Subscriber Line) may be used.

[0029]

Next, in order to show the effect of the present invention, a comparison with a conventional example will be made. For example, in FIG.
It is assumed that data of A, B, C, and D are sent to subscribers who subscribe to the V network 13a. A = 300K for each data size
B, B = 200KB, C = 300KB, D = 100K
B, E = 400KB, F = 200KB, G = 500KB
And When data A, B, and C are transmitted to the subscriber (A), data A, C, D, and E are transmitted to the subscriber (A), and data A, D, and E are transmitted to the subscriber (C). , (A) 800KB, (A) 1100KB, (C) 80
0 KB, and the data distribution server 12 of the distribution source
The distribution amount from a to the mail server 13b of the distribution destination α is 2,
700 KB, and the entire data amount is relayed by the Internet 11. At this time, assuming that the narrowest connection band is 100 KB / sec, it takes 27 seconds to finish sending the mail data.

On the other hand, in the present invention shown in FIG. 1, when the data sizes of A to G are set in the same manner as described above, A, B, C,
D, E mail data of a total of 1,300 KB and the distribution list are relayed. As described above, if the narrowest connection band is 1
In the case of 00 KB / sec, it takes about 13 seconds to finish sending the mail data. Therefore, in the present invention, since duplicate mail data is not transmitted, it can be said that the mail can be delivered in a shorter time than before.

[0031]

As described above, the present invention increases the traffic on the Internet because a plurality of types of advertisement information are distributed to a distribution destination network without redundancy and then distributed to each subscriber at the distribution destination. Advertisement information according to each subscriber's request can be delivered without any need.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram showing a distribution source.

FIG. 3 is a plane showing a registration screen for customer information.

FIG. 4 is a plane showing a registration screen of subscription information.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing (1) distribution source processing.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an automatic deletion process (* 1) of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a distribution list generation process (* 2) of FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a mail data generation process (* 3) of FIG. 5;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating processing of a distributor.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing (3) terminal-side processing.

11 is a flowchart showing an automatic deletion process (* 4) in FIG.

FIG. 12 is a system configuration diagram showing an outline of an advertisement information distribution system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-90780.

FIG. 13 is a plan view showing an example of an e-mail advertisement.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Internet, 2a Data distribution server, 2a-
1 ... distribution destination extraction unit, 2a-11 ... distribution target matching unit, 2a
-12: Subscription target adaptation unit, 2a-2: Mail data generation unit, 2a-3: FTP server, 2a-4: Mail server, 2a-5: Web server, 2a-6: Extraction condition decoder, 2b: Storage device , 2b-1 ... subscriber information DB, 2
b-2: advertising data DB, 2b-3: advertiser information DB,
2b-4: entity data pool section, 3a: CATV network, 3
b: mail server, 3c to 3e: terminal, 3f: distributor, 3g: storage device, 4a: CATV network, 4b
... mail server, 4c-4e ... terminal, 4f ... distributor, 4g ... storage device.

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Claims (8)

[Claims] Claims 1. A plurality of types of advertisement information are managed by a distribution source,
In the method of individually distributing the advertisement information to a plurality of subscribers connected to a distribution destination local network, the type of advertisement information desired by the distribution destination subscriber is registered in the distribution source as a distribution list The distribution list and the advertisement information registered in the distribution list are distributed to the local network of the distribution destination. The distribution list is referred to at the distribution destination, and the advertisement information desired by each subscriber is individually electronically distributed. An advertisement information distribution method characterized by distributing by e-mail. 2. The advertisement information distribution method according to claim 1, wherein the distribution source has information on an expiration date of the advertisement information, and deletes the expired advertisement information. Advertising information distribution method. 3. The advertisement information distribution method according to claim 1, wherein the distribution source changes the contents of the distribution list in response to a request from the subscriber. 4. The advertisement information distribution method according to claim 1, wherein the local network is a cable television network. 5. A plurality of types of advertisement information are managed by a distribution source,
In a system for individually distributing the advertisement information to a plurality of subscribers connected to a distribution destination local network, a distribution list including the type of advertisement information desired by the distribution destination subscriber is registered. A distribution list and data distribution means for distributing advertisement information registered in the distribution list to the local network of the distribution destination; and distributing advertisement information desired by each subscriber individually by e-mail with reference to the distribution list. An advertisement information distribution system, comprising: 6. The advertisement information distribution system according to claim 5, wherein the data distribution unit has information on an expiration date of the advertisement information, and deletes the expired advertisement information. Advertising information distribution system. 7. The advertisement information distribution system according to claim 5, wherein the data distribution unit changes the contents of the distribution list in response to a request from the subscriber. 8. The advertisement information distribution system according to claim 5, wherein the local network is a cable television network.